Indiana appeals judge’s decision to overturn the state’s prohibition on abortion

Indianapolis, Indiana – The state of Indiana has appealed a judge’s ruling that prevented the state’s abortion ban from coming into effect, asking the state’s high court to hear the case and requesting a stay of that ruling.

While Indiana abortion facilities were getting ready to meet patients once more on Friday, the appeal was filed.

Hours after Owen County Judge Kelsey Hanlon issued a preliminary injunction against the abortion ban, putting the new law on hold while abortion clinic operators argue in a lawsuit that it violates the state constitution, Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher and the state attorney general’s office filed the appeal.

The state requested that the Indiana Supreme Court accept an emergency transfer of its appeal of the preliminary injunction in a different motion.

“Only this Court can provide the final word on this hotly contested, high-profile, pure question of law that is of grave importance to the General Assembly and the citizens of Indiana,” that motion states.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is representing the abortion clinics, filed the lawsuit on Aug. 31 and argued the ban would “prohibit the overwhelming majority of abortions in Indiana and, as such, will have a devastating and irreparable impact on the plaintiffs and, more importantly, their patients and clients.”

The state attorney general’s office had asked the court to uphold the state’s ban, saying arguments against it are based on a “novel, unwritten, historically unsupported right to abortion” in the state constitution.

According to Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana’s legal director, the plaintiffs now have 15 days to file their response to the state’s request for the stay. He said he did not expect any immediate hearings on the matter.

“We expected there would be an appeal and we are going to pursue the same argument that we had pursued, that the Indiana constitution recognizes this right — the right to privacy that encompasses abortion rights, which of course this statute violates,” Falk said.